


twelve hours

by nijimura, shairiru



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-24 12:06:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9725618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nijimura/pseuds/nijimura, https://archiveofourown.org/users/shairiru/pseuds/shairiru
Summary: You were taught to keep the most important people.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _What's your favorite time of the day?_

4 o’clock. The school bell rings. You line up for the try outs, and there you see him: tall, lanky, awkward. His hands are bandaged and he keeps a flower pot beside him. But none of it mattered when he makes all of his shots cleanly, and you’re amazed at how skillful he is.

 

3 o’clock. You go to the library and you notice him sitting alone on a far corner. This time, a stuffed bear takes the spot next to him. Despite being in the same class and club, you have never even once talked with him. You approach him there and then, much to his surprise. An hour later and you have made a new friend.

 

2 o’clock. You ring the doorbell. His mother opens the door and tells you to come in and feel at home. His sister hides behind her and you give her a small smile. She smiles back and blushes, and runs away. You think you have scared her, but then she returns with a tray of food and juice and tells you to eat up. A family so warm has never been a constant to you. You tell him this, and he smiles slightly. _You’d always be welcome here._  
You wanted to stay even longer.

 

1 o’clock. Graduation ceremonies have ended and everyone is among friends, capturing the final moments where they are in the same school together. You’re surrounded by a lot of people, being thrown with a multitude of congratulations. It is a feat, they’re saying, to graduate at the top of the class while simultaneously leading the basketball team through three consecutive national championships. If only they would look at the far right end of the auditorium where he stands with his family, then they’d realize what you had to lose in order to gain this much.

 

12 o’clock. The match is about to start. It’s your school against his, and to be quite honest, you’re pretty interested as well on how it will turn out. There is no doubt in your heart that your team will win. You’ve known it the moment the tournament started. What you’re interested about is how much he has grown from the last time you’ve met. You’ve watched his recent games, of course, but it’ll be quite different when he’s standing before you less than a meter away in a different uniform. The ability to know what you’re opponents next move is one of your greatest strengths.  However, you feel that you already know him too much to ever need such skill.

You are proven to be wrong, about knowing him too much that is. What a difference a year can make. What a difference a very efficient teammate can do to the person he knew best.

That difference is not enough, however, to teach you defeat. An hour later and you’ve declared him an enemy.

 

11 o’clock. There could have never been a more awkward situation than meeting him again with everyone else for a friendly match. You don’t miss how his expression changes the moment you laid eyes on each other. There is an uncertainty in between the space that separates you from him, a reservation that used to be filled with talks of music and games of shogi. You wonder if it’s possible to be that way again.

 

10 o’clock. Fate has its own way to deal with things, or so you tell yourself. You get to play on the same team with him again, and it’s the greatest stroke of luck you’ve encountered recently. Sure, the honor of your country and your seniors who got humiliated are on the line, but with him by your side, victory has never felt so certain once more.

True enough, it is the two of you who turns the game around. In performing a combination that you’ve never practiced together, yet putting your whole trust with each other, the team manages to catch up. The team manages to win.

You search for his eyes the moment the game is over. There he is on the other side of the court, searching for yours as well. Your eyes meet. You smile. At the same time, you raise your fists in the air.

The person you thought you’ve lost has now come back to you.

 

9 o’clock. Along the way you realize that you wanted more than to stay where he is; what you want most is someone to go back to. You want __him__  to be the person you can go back to. You want to be the person he can go back to. The night before you leave for Kyoto, you tell him all this and how you don’t want to lose him again. You tell him all your regrets and how you wish you could have done differently. You tell him how badly you want to keep him, and him to keep you.  
Silence is the initial reply. There is a ringing in your ears and a tightness in your chest. You’ve never felt so afraid. He breathes out. You breathe in.  
Cloaked by the darkness of the street, he strokes your cheek with his thumb and pulls you close for a kiss. It’s a matter of a moment, how long the kiss lasted, but your heart is still racing until the sun has risen over the horizon.

 

8 o’clock. Felicity is another word for happiness. __Great__  happiness. Felicity is a word you’ve always associated yourself with for the past few weeks. It’s quite a trouble, the distance that separates you from him. You tell yourself distance can make the heart grow fonder. Every single message, every single call, every online shogi game, every single chance you get to meet — you take it all to heart, they all make you smile. Knowing he is there on the other end of the line to listen and to talk to is enough to keep you happy for what feels like a lifetime. They tell you that you seem in love. You brush them off; you just like him a lot.

Don’t you?

 

7 o’clock. Snow falls steadily, blanketing the gray earth in white. It’s cold as you wait for him inside a cafe. Your heart is racing fast, your chest feels tight. The cup of coffee surrounded by your hand warms your palm, but there is another source of heat that you’re craving for.

He comes up in your view covered up in a coat, hands hidden in his pockets. You wait no longer and hurries outside, throwing yourself into his arms. You bury your face onto his coat, and his arms wrap around you, warm and comfortable. Home.

You look and meet his eyes; he bends down and meets your lips in a chaste kiss. _I missed you_ , both of you seem to say without uttering a single word. You break apart smiling. Oh how your heart races looking at the depth of his eyes.

Two hours later and you’re tangled in each others’ legs, in each others’ arms. Your fingers are weaved through his hair, his hands are all over you. The cold of winter is quickly chased away by the distance that is no more between your skins. You’ve never realized what longing is until you’re out of breath, lips bruised and wet. You’ve never realized how badly you wanted him until he is inside of you and you are clinging on to him for dear life. You never realized how deep you’ve fallen until everything is done and you are staring into each other eyes, where you can see a possibility of a future with the two of you together. Happy.

You wish time would stop and freeze everything else. You wish you could revel in this moment forever.

Oh how your heart races, indeed.

 

 

6 o’clock. Time is not stopping for anyone, that is a universal truth. You’ve known since the beginning that you will step forward into the bigger world and learn all of it, own it. But to realize this dream, you have to let loose of the less important things. People.

Heaven knows how much he has become a part of you. You’ve lost him once, and you wouldn’t want to lose him again. Is it really inevitable?

_Are you willing to wait?_

_That’s selfish of you to ask._

You reach out, holding his hand with both of yours. Cold.

_I-_

_Don’t say something you will regret, Seijuurou._  

He smiles. Sad.

_You’ve got bigger plans than me. I understand._

He pulls his hand away from yours, and it feels like he took a part of your heart with him. You’re just a table apart, but it already seems like a thousand of miles separates you in between. You already miss his touch. You already miss his lips. You already miss his warmth.

_This is farewell, then._

_Will this be the last?_

He lets out a laugh. Melancholic.

_We’ve had enough of those for a lifetime._

Without another word, he stand up and leaves. You keep your eyes on him as he walks away, wishing that he looks back even once. His figure gradually becomes slower, drowned by the streetlights and the falling blossoms of spring.

He never looks back.

Oh how your heart breaks.

 

5 o’clock. The sun is making its way towards the horizon. You’re making your way into an unfamiliar territory. The plane has just taken off the runway and you’re graced by the glittering view of the city, yet an entirely different imagery is in your mind.

You wonder where he is now. You wonder what he must be doing. You wonder if you could have said things differently so that you didn’t have to lose him. You wonder if you could have done something at that moment to make him stay. And even though you were taught from the beginning to keep the most important people, you wonder why you let him go.

 

 

 

 


	2. an extra hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _My favorite time of the day? 12 o’clock in the morning._

You see him again at a celebration for a successful business proposal and you suspect it is nothing less than cosmic irony that your paths come to align in the end.

 

Calling it fate is redundant and unnecessary (you could almost already feel the amusement radiating off his person). And mentally pointing out the ever-present complexities that come with possibility does you more harm than not (you could not quite figure out if his very presence in your life has the same nature).

 

Akashi Seijuro, as of three years ago, was nothing more than a scar that comes to life sometimes when you poke it. The memory of him rests in a special but concealed compartment in your head and, as of three years ago, you have decided you preferred it this way. Today marks three years from then and Akashi is alive in the flesh, breathing the air you breathe out, maintaining eye-contact with you, never once submitting to background noise. He looks as pretty and dignified as ever.

 

All too soon he excuses himself and leaves the building and you think it’s simply not fair he gives you a choice now; because any decision ever made involving Akashi Seijuro has only ended in adversity for you. Yet you follow like the fool you are.

 

The fool your principles, which you obsessively hold, oppose.

 

Outside there is Akashi, and he is leaning against the rail of a bridge. His hair, longer and familiar, sashays with the wind, looking less like reality and more of the dreams you helplessly procure in the middle of the night.

 

“Shintaro.”

 

(And wake up to sighing.)

 

“Our last farewell,” Akashi recalls, turns, and the smile he harbours graces his matured face and renders you breathless. “I intend to keep it that way.”

 

You let him take your hand and coil his fingers tight with yours. You wonder if, had you been exposed to such a strong grip years ago, it would have been able to keep you from falling apart. Such romantic sentiments make you want to scoff but you find you don’t have the breath to, not when he is looking at you like this.

 

“This time, if you’ll let me…”

 

Like he _needs_ you.

 

“I’d like to stay.”

 

You shiver. _12 o’clock in the morning._ It is a time well-known for new beginnings.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lunch wrote this second chapter, because she won't accept how the first one ended. I love you, my child ;o;

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentines Midoaka!!!


End file.
